Yoga and shadow work

Shadow work is the path of the heart warrior.

C.G.Jung

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

C.G.Jung

Shadow work is essentially a deep dive method of healing, of accessing hidden unknown emotions that our bodies are holding onto. These emotions can be trapped from as far back as early childhood, locked away in the subconscious and also in the physical body. Shadow work helps us confront what we normally avoid and ultimately integrate these aspects into a more whole, peaceful self.

Coined by Carl Jung, the shadow represents the aspects of our personality we find unacceptable or shameful, such as anger, envy, lust or past trauma. Most people try to suppress these traits, but doing so can lead to emotional and physical issues like addictions, low self-esteem and mental illness. Rather than denying this darker side, transformation comes from embracing what is. By acknowledging and working with the shadow, we gain emotional richness and authenticity. Osho warns against positive thinking as a form of repression, emphasizing that pretending to be fine only postpones true healing.

Why I believe Yoga can be a powerful way of working with our shadow.

The deeper we go into all the layers of a Yoga journey, the more we are bound to be confronted with both our light and shadow aspects of ourselves, a true rollercoaster of inner experiences. Like the relation between Yin and Yang, light and shadow, day and night, so our relation to life and Yoga can change or incorporate a duality, between idealization and disillusionment. For example, as beginners, we start to fall in love with the practice of Yoga or our idea of what Yoga is, just to start potentially losing interest or energy for the practice a couple of weeks, months or years after. The discomfort we experience or our challenging emotions are important in their own way, because it allows for further exploration and discovery, in the Yoga journey. Of course, it is not to be denied that Yoga can make us feel really great about how we feel, about our bodies and possibilities, but also the physical and spiritual limitations or challenges we might experience, as well as our resistance to discomfort are an opportunity to grow and develop in our practice and this relates a lot to our shadow self or shadow work. A true authentic Yoga practice lies in embracing the full spectrum of experience and recognizing these patterns when they arise and that means perhaps having days when our focus or balance are not the best, days when lying in stillness on the mat is simply difficult or when our thoughts are racing too much.

Yoga impacts the deeper layers of our subconscious by rewiring the brain and bringing unconscious patterns to light. Since Yoga is a purification practice, it helps clear out emotional and psychological baggage, but only if confronted. Once we feel we own the shadow, we take responsibility for it, only then we can start shaping and integrate it into our whole. To navigate this process of Yogic shadow work, it's important to cultivate self awareness, self-care and seek support from loved ones or from a life coach or therapist. This shadow work can look very different from person to person, manifesting in many ways on the Yoga mat for example like fear of certain poses, impostor syndrome around teaching, body image issues, perfectionism or unexpected emotional releases. A more concrete example would be paying attention to anything that might trigger us during a practice and looking within to understand why is that, for example the tone or voice of a teacher, the sequence itself or the pace of the practice, any sounds or noises, whether the practice is too rigid or too freestyle and what is that telling us about our relation to Life.

Apart from understanding this process in our Yoga practice, there are some helpful tools that we can use for this process of healing and transformation, such as journaling, enough rest, balancing creative activities outside of Yoga and last but not least, learning to openly communicate our emotions. Moreover, learning to pay attention to how we breathe can be an amazing tool for self-discovery and self-awareness. Breathing affects nearly every system in the body, including sleep, digestion, heart function, mood, and energy levels. Many spiritual traditions emphasize breath as a key to self-awareness and transformation, especially in confronting the shadow self. Breathwork techniques can help increase energy, confidence and empowerment. For everyone already familiar with meditation, shadow work meditation can be a powerful extension of a daily or weekly practice. It involves quietly bringing awareness to difficult emotions, past experiences or negative thought patterns and observing them with compassion and without judgment. This practice helps release suppressed emotions and fosters greater self-acceptance and inner peace. However, shadow work is a gradual process, therefore deep emotional issues may need to be revisited multiple times before they fully integrate.

Whatever shift we might experience in our Yoga journey is worth analyzing and understanding all its aspects and the potential it has to change us and to help us look more within, to our real Self. Embracing both the light and shadow sides of ourselves and our relationships is essential for authentic self-discovery. 

Actually, the first practical advice offered in the Yoga Sutras regarding the serenity of the mind refers to equanimity in regards to guilty thoughts, emotions or negative patterns, so in traditional Yoga, there is this recommendation of not fighting or feeding our personal stories and experiences as this can lead to more separation, but rather embracing them as part of a whole. Furthermore, Self-Inquiry in Yoga is considered an optimal tool for reflection and gradually shifting our paradigm, by bringing more awareness into our real human nature. Learning to witness different thoughts and subconscious tendencies from a wider perspective leads to self-discovery and freedom from all these beliefs and patterns, that we are more than our emotions, we are spaciousness itself in which thoughts, emotions and subconscious forces appear and disappear, in a constant movement, beyond individuality and separation.

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